Champions League: Tiago hails his boss Diego Simeone after win

Atletico Madrid midfielder Tiago, who spent a season at Chelsea in 2004/05 and lost a Champions League semi-final to Liverpool during his time at the club, hailed manager Diego Simeone for reviving their fortunes.

The Madrid side are not only in the Champions League final but they top the Primera Division standings by four points to Barcelona, with the league title firmly in their sights.

“Simeone has a lot to do with it. He has changed our mentality,” Tiago told Sky Sports.

“We all work together, we work as a team. Playing like we play we are the strongest team in the world and we deserve what we have in this moment. We don’t have anything, it’s true, but we’re close to having something.”

Unlike Mourinho, Tiago feels the equaliser was the turning point in the match.

He said: “It was very important to go to half-time at 1-1. That’s the way we like to play.

“In that moment we knew in the second half Chelsea would have to play more and we would have more spaces in the defence, and we scored again.

“Of course it’s not easy to play here at Stamford Bridge but we knew Chelsea had to play more. They had to score a goal.

“We had confidence because we know we are very good playing away from home and we scored. After our goal I think Chelsea went a little bit down, we got confident and we won here.”